Editor's Note: Listen to the full story in our player above, and join the conversation in our comments section below.

(CNN) – First he forced chain restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus. Then he pushed forward with a ban on large size sugary soft drinks.

Now New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants people to set aside their food scraps so they can be collected for composting.

"It gives people a way to participate in composting even if you don't want to go whole hog yourself," said Brooklyn Botanic Garden spokesperson Kate Blumm. "So you don't want worms under your sink? Fine. You don't want to have to go out to your backyard with a pitchfork once a week? Fine. This is a way that you can participate, or really I can participate, as well."

Editor's Note: Listen to the full story in our player above, and join the conversation in our comments section below.

(CNN) – For the past several years China has been on a spending spree. Chinese companies are working with their government to acquire assets all over the world. Things like technology companies, banks, ports and real estate.

But last week's announcement that a Chinese meat producer had agreed to buy Virginia-based Smithfield Foods raised more than a few eyebrows. That's because Smithfield is the world's largest processor of pork, selling ham, hot dogs and bacon under popular brand names like Armor and Farmland.

University of California-Irvine economist Peter Navarro worries that deals like this one help China gain too much control over the American economy:

[1:31] “We're getting deeper and deeper into debt with a country that doesn't have our best interests at heart. This is not Canada. This is not Great Britain. It's a country which is growing the biggest military in the world to challenge us .” FULL POST

Editor's Note: Listen to the full story in our player above, and join the conversation in our comments section below.

Riverhead, New York (CNN) – A bitter, hot, gnarly looking root plays a key role in the upcoming seder meal at the center of the Jewish holiday Passover. Horseradish symbolizes the bitter existence the Israelites experienced in slavery under the Pharaoh in Egypt. Most people get it from a jar but it’s actually quite easy to make.

[3:21] “It’s predominantly sold for Passover and for Easter also people use it but yeah, this is the season,” said Phillip Schmitt, owner of the Schmitt family farm in Riverhead, New York. “It’s a pretty ugly root when it first comes out of the ground. I mean all these little ones are all attached. It’s pretty wild looking.”

Editor's Note: Listen to the full story in our player above, and join the conversation in our comments section below.

Montgomery, Alabama (CNN) - Despite the fact that it has been federally legal since 1979, there are still two U.S. states that don't allow residents to make beer in their own homes: Alabama and Mississippi.

The issue is expected to be one of the first to surface in Alabama's state legislature as lawmakers there head back to session this week, and a colorful standoff is likely.

Homebrew laws have failed to materialize for the past five years, with religion and morality arguments narrowly beating out the estimated 5,000 underground homebrewers in the state who say their civil liberties are on the line.

(CNN) - Ahmed Ferwana has a cookout coming up, one that's been years in the making. The English teacher, and CNN iReporter, in Gaza City is excited because his friends will be cooking a fish they haven't been able to buy in years.

[1:12] "When you eat it you feel like it's really rich."

Ferwana says the taste of this fish when cooked on the grill with spices is indescribable. He added that this fish, its name is translated as locus, is also a favorite because it has fewer bones than others.